Alternate Roles V3: Storyweaver's Tale
by GKinni
Summary: A familiar game... But a few things are different, and those things will lead the characters to take on different roles in this story. Will Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer, be able to survive and solve the mystery of the Killing Game?
1. May the Killing Game Begin!

**Prologue – You Should Do Your Best**

Tsumugi Shirogane opened her eyes.

She was confused, due to the fact that this didn't do a thing to help with the darkness all around her. Still, the girl didn't panic, and decided that, if sight didn't work, she would try touch.

Feeling around the place she was in, Tsumugi quickly discovered that it was a narrow space, with her hands easily being able to touch the walls in every direction. She had somehow been sleeping while on her feet inside that place.

So, she was inside a narrow, closed space with no light. That was bad.

But even that wasn't reason to panic. Thankfully she didn't have claustrophobia, and she could wait to panic until after she determined whether she was actually _trapped_ wherever she was.

So Tsumugi put both hands forward and pushed.

The front "wall" gave way without any resistance, and Tsumugi was blinded by the sudden light at the same time as she fell to the floor.

"Ouch..." Tsumugi moaned.

She got up and looked around. It seemed like she was inside of some sort of classroom. Also, she had been inside of a locker when she woke up. Tsumugi also saw that there was another locker inside that classroom. Was there perhaps someone else inside that one?

Just as that thought crossed her mind, Tsumugi's guess was proven right when a girl stumbled out of the locker.

She was a blonde who was wearing pink clothes, fingerless gloves, googles on her forehead, boots and garters, as well as straps on her arms and midriff.

"Argh... Where am I...?" She muttered, as she started getting up.

"Are you okay?" Tsumugi asked.

"Gah... That was a bad trip..." The girl rubbed her head and looked around "What did I take last night...?"

"I... Don't think being here has anything to do with taking something." Tsumugi said, bemused.

"Huh...?" The blonde girl looked at Tsumugi "So this isn't some kind of party?"

"I don't think so." Tsumugi said "I don't know what happened, but I woke up inside one of those lockers, just like you. And who are you, anyway?"

"Me? I need no introduction, but if you insist, I am Miu Iruma, gorgeous girl genius and Ultimate Inventor!" The newly named girl spoke bombastically.

"Ah, you're an Ultimate as well? I don't really meet other Ultimates that often. My name is Tsumugi Shirogane, and I am the Ultimate Cosplayer." Tsumugi said, smiling slightly.

"Huh? Well, it's true, I rarely ever meet any other Ultimates either. So, you really don't know what is happening here?" Miu asked.

"Yeah." Tsumugi confirmed "I just woke up and I have no idea where this is or how I could have gotten here." She grimaced "My memory about the most recent things is kinda hazy too..." She shook her head "We should check outside and she what we can find. I assume that door isn't locked."

"I'll check!" Miu said, and started to go, but then...

"Wait!" Tsumugi shouted.

"What?"

Tsumugi put a hand on one of her pockets and took out a small tablet computer, which had "Monopad" written on the side.

"I just felt something weird in my pocket, and..." She booted the tablet up, and it showed her name "Is this like a Student Handbook?"

Miu searched her own body, and found a "Monopad" as well.

"Where did this come from?" She asked.

"I have no idea, but it's probably related to the reason why we're here." Tsumugi said "Still, we can check that later. It's better to get back to what we were doing before."

"Right." Miu said, before pocketing the Monopad back and going to open the door.

It opened easily, and the two went to explore the school, soon finding out quite a few things:

\- They could exit the school, but the grounds around it were covered with a dome cage, that completely prevented them from thinking of escaping.

\- There were fourteen other Ultimate Students trapped inside with them, including a green haired boy (called Rantaro Amami) that had somehow forgotten his talent and a blonde girl (Kaede Akamatsu), who was the Ultimate Pianist and was trying to get the Ultimates to cooperate in order to find a way out.

\- There were six moving stuffed bear things. One of which was black and white and called himself "the headmaster of the Ultimate Academy", saying that he would explain the situation of the Ultimates soon.

Miu and Tsumugi eventually split, with the former saying that she wanted to look for "something", while the latter started walking through the school and observing, since she didn't feel the need to do anything else, specially before the bear delivered its promised explanation.

And she didn't really need to wait for long, as soon speakers all over the school went on, broadcasting a message that all the Ultimates should head to the gym.

Tsumugi did so, and met up with the others along the way. Miu seemed to be in a bad mood, but the cosplayer didn't mind, and the two walked together and entered the meeting place.

There was a stage with a podium inside the gym. Standing in front of the podium were the five small, colorful stuffed bears, while the bigger, black and white bear was sitting on the podium.

Tsumugi and the other Ultimates stood near the podium, their bodies forming a wary line as they looked at the bears. And then, the black and white bear started to talk.

"Welcome, Ultimates! Welcome to the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles!" He greeted them "My name is Monokuma, and I am the Headmaster." Then, he swept his arm in the direction of the other bears "And these are the Teaching Assistants of the Academy."

"I'm Monotaro!" Exclaimed the red and white one.

"I am Monophanie." Said the white and pink one, who seemed to be feminine.

"Heeeeere's Monokid!" Said the blue and white one, who had an immense tongue.

"The name's Monosuke." Said the yellow and white one, who wore glasses.

"I-AM-CALLED-MONODAM." Said the green and white one, who looked more robotic than the rest.

That introduction left almost every one of the Ultimates speechless. The first to find her voice was Kaede Akamatsu.

"Headmaster...? Teaching Assistants...? Where are we? What do you want from us...?"

"Puhuhu..." Monokuma laughed "Before I answer that, it would be better if all of you were aware of the situation you're in." He pointed at the students "You guys had some time to explore the school, but you may still be harboring some mistaken assumptions about this place, so I'm just going to say it straight up: There is no exit from here."

"No... exit?" Kaede said, disbelieving.

"To be more precise, there is no way to exit without following the rules." Monokuma said with a small laugh "And that bring us to the reason why you were brought here... To participate in the Killing Game!"

"Killing Game!" The five other bears all shouted.

"Killing... Game...?" Tsumugi muttered.

"Exactly, the Killing Game! You need to beat the Killing Game in order to be allowed to leave this place!" Monokuma shouted "There are two ways to win the Killing Game, but both of them revolve one simple concept: The Perfect Crime."

"One of the ways of beating the Killing Game is by committing a Perfect Crime, which means killing someone and getting away with it." Monokuma stated simply "To see whether or not the crime of that student, who will shall call 'blackened', can be classified as 'Perfect', we will hold a class trial sometime after a body is discovered."

"What?!" Gonta shouted, full of indignation.

"Continuing my explanation..." Monokuma disregarded him "In the Class Trial, the students will discuss the evidence, alibis and all that, before voting on who they think is the culprit." He grinned "And after the voting, we have my favorite part: The Punishment!" He laughed "If the person with the most votes turns out to be the killer, then their crime wasn't perfect, and they will receive punishment. However, if that isn't the case, then the killer graduates, and is allowed to leave the Academy... While the other students will receive the punishment in their place!"

He stopped and looked at the Ultimates, clearly waiting for something. Rantaro was the one to give it to him:

"And what is this 'punishment' you speak off?"

"Well, there is only one thing that it could possibly be... Death, of course!" He cackled "And that means the other students will work even harder in order to solve the crime of the 'blackened'." He adopted a joking expression "Of course, if you don't want to kill anyone, it is still possible to win the game, due to the second way of winning that I mentioned.

"If there are three or less students remaining after the end of a class trial, the surviving ones will be allowed to leave." Monokuma finished.

"Do you really expect us to kill each other, just like this?" Kaede demanded.

"That is actually a very good question." Monokuma said, in mocked praise "If you want to escape, some of you will have to die. But it really would be hard for you to kill each other so easily... But that's what your Teaching Assistants are here for!"

And then Monotaro started to speak:

"Every week we shall provide you guys with a new 'motive', to help you get hyped up for killing your fellow classmates!"

"And it's not just that, but you can also use your Monopads to call for our assistance in such matters." Monophanie said.

"We can instruct you about possible tricks for killing, and even help clean up evidence." Monosuke said.

"But we're not gonna do everything for you bastards!" Monokid shouted "You will have to do the killing yourselves!"

"ALSO-THERE-ARE-SOME-OTHER-RESTRICTIONS-TO-MAKE-THE-GAME-FAIR-FOR-EVERYONE." Monodam said.

"And also, to make sure you guys get along with your Teaching Assistants, they will also be playing a game of their own." Monokuma said.

"HUH?!" The other five said together, as apparently that was news to them.

"Oh, did I forget to mention it to you?" Monokuma asked, smugly.

Then he clapped his paws together and caused a screen to appear, in which every one of the small bears was displayed, together with the number 500 for each of them.

"Each of you will start with 500 Monopoints. You will lose 100 for every day without a killing, and if you ever get to zero... You shall be executed." Monokuma said.

"AHHHH?!" The small bears screamed.

"You will be able to gain points by doing well your jobs as Teaching Assistants. But if you do them badly, you may also lose a lot of points all at once." He continued.

"But, but dad..." Monotaro pleaded "We're the Monokubs. If one of us dies, then we won't be the Monokubs anymore!"

"Well, in that case I guess you should do your best to not die, then!" Monokuma said, happily "Now... Everything else about the game your guys will be able to figure out on your own." He then jumped in the air and started floating there "So, without further ado... Let's get the killing game started!"

He started laughing, signaling the beginning of the nightmare.


	2. Ultimate Research Labs

**Chapter 1 – Doing What We Can – Daily Life**

The next few minutes felt kinda dreamlike for Tsumugi. She didn't know how exactly it happened, but she eventually found herself inside a dorm room.

It was a large and comfortable dorm room, even including an attached bathroom. Tsumugi left the room, and discovered that it was one of the rooms in the building that seemed to be the dormitory. Specifically, it was the room that apparently belonged to herself, judging by the image atop the door, which was a chibi version of her.

Upon realizing this, Tsumugi thought seriously about the possibility of simply going back inside her room and trying to get her thoughts under control. However, she rejected that possibility for three reasons: One, she realized that staying alone without doing anything would just make her even more confused. Two: She wanted to know what the others were doing in regards to what was happening. And Three: She was afraid of staying alone, even in an ostensibly safe place like her own room. She didn't know those other people after all, so she didn't know if one of them was the type who would be willing to kill.

So, she walked out, and started seeking the other students. She saw Maki Harukawa, Ultimate Child Caregiver, reading a book in the library and looking completely unapproachable. In the AV Room, she saw Gonta Gokuhara and Ryoma Hoshi, Ultimate Entomologist and Tennis Pro, who were watching some sort of documentary about bugs.

Then she was walking through the corridors when she finally found someone who was willing to speak with her. It was Kaede Akamatsu, Ultimate Pianist, and she was walking around together with Shuuichi Saihara, Ultimate Detective.

"Are you okay?" Her first words were of concern "You seemed really out of it while on the gym, Tsumugi."

"I..." She hesitated "I'm better. At least I'm able to think now. What are you doing, by the way?"

"Ah, me and Shuuichi are going around, trying to figure out what's going on here, and find a way to escape." Kaede said "If you want to have something to do, why not go around the school again? There are three 'Ultimate Research Labs', places for us to refine our talents. Your Lab hasn't opened yet, but it could be fun to look at the others."

"Really? What Labs are open? And what do you mean by saying that mine isn't open yet?" Tsumugi asked, already feeling better, just from having something else to think about.

"Each Lab is specific to one Ultimate. And Monokuma told me that the other Labs are still under construction, so it seems like everyone will get a Lab at some point." She stopped for a moment "As to what Labs are open... It's my Lab, Miu's Lab and Kokichi's Lab."

Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Supreme Leader. It would be interesting to see the other two Labs, specially because she wanted to know whether Miu was working on something to help them escape.

So she thanked Kaede for the idea and left. She first went to Kaede's Lab, because she probably wouldn't spend too much time inside given that Kaede wasn't there. The Lab was behind a music note door at the second floor of the school building.

Tsumugi went inside, and it was pretty much exactly what she expected it to be. There was a piano and a keyboard, as well as entire shelves containing musical records and a variety of music players that could be used to play those records.

Tsumugi looked around, but she was too shy to try touching the piano, and she didn't have the necessary musical background to identify the records, with the exception of a few that had been used in anime. The Cosplayer left with vague thoughts of asking Kaede to suggest something for her to listen later.

Next she went to Kokichi's Lab, which was a very interesting experience just to get there. Somehow, a whole stairway into the underground had appeared in the middle of the entrance hall of the school building. Tsumugi slowly descended the stairs and walked through the corridor to Kokichi's Lab.

She saw that Angie Yonaga (Ultimate Artist) and Kaito Momota (Ultimate Astronaut), were there as well. The former seemed to be sketching something, while the latter was playing with a remote controlled copter. Looking further into she room she saw that Kokichi was sitting on a throne-like chair in a raised dais on the side.

He noticed Tsumugi's approach and waved at her:

"Helloooo, Tsumugi! Welcome to my humble lair." He said.

The Cosplayer looked around and felt surprise. That really wasn't what she was expecting.

To be fair, Tsumugi wasn't really sure about what she was expecting. Considering that Kokichi's Talent was Ultimate Supreme Leader, it was difficult to imagine what it could be about.

And looking at the Lab... She still wasn't entirely sure. There were masks and wigs of multiple types, there were gloves and joy buzzers, there were very detailed designs for things like cannons that shot fish. It was a mess, roughly speaking.

Since it wasn't likely that she would be able to guess what was the point of all that, she decided that it would be better to ask, so Tsumugi walked towards Kokichi and spoke:

"Looking at this Lab, I still don't know what your talent is all about."

Kokichi smiled at her "It's pretty simple. I am actually the leader of an evil organization dedicated to causing worldwide mayhem by way of pranks."

Tsumugi looked at him, and then looked around at the Lab once again. Organization and Pranks were indeed two things she thought of when looking at it.

Still, she had to ask:

"Are you serious?"

Kokichi put his hands behind his head and answered "Who knows? I'm a liar after all."

Tsumugi shot him an unimpressed look, but Kokichi didn't seem the least bothered.

"If you want, I'm taking applications for joining D.I.C.E." He said "All you need to do is put on one of those clown noses and swear the oath." He produces a red clown nose from somewhere.

"I'll pass for now." Tsumugi said.

She decided that it wasn't likely that she would be able to get anything else out of Kokichi, and while the Lab was interesting, she really wanted to go and see what Miu was doing.

So she left Kokichi's Lab and made her way back towards the outside. And once she left the underground, Tsumugi simply had to leave the school building and she was able to see the Ultimate Inventor's Lab on the area outside.

The lab was a one floor building with a high-tech aesthetic. Tsumugi just had to walk up to the door and it opened automatically, allowing the Cosplayer to get inside.

And the interior was just like Tsumugi had imagined. A huge amount of mechanical parts scattered haphazardly around, machines and tools spread atop several tables, some of them pretty normal, while others had purposes that he couldn't begin to guess. And in the middle of it all was Miu Iruma, happily working some kind of bolt cutter to separate certain parts.

Tsumugi waited until Miu was done with her task before speaking:

"Hey, Miu."

The Inventor turned around to look at who was talking, panic in her face, but it disappeared once she saw that it was just Tsumugi.

"Oh? You're here?" She spoke, trying for casualness and failing "What's the matter? Were you finally unable to resist coming to see me?" Her tone changed to become mocking "I know it is a sin to have such an amazing body together with an amazing mind, but if you want to get my favor, you'll need to work hard!" She said in a teasing tone.

Tsumugi smiled. It seemed like Miu was still herself, despite the situation. Perhaps it was because she had her Lab, and thus felt more comfortable? That thought made Tsumugi think of her own Lab that was apparently still under construction. Regardless, she answered Miu with:

"I just felt bored, so I decided to go look at the Labs." She smiled "I already saw the others, but didn't feel like staying there, so I decided to come see yours." She spread her arms "Are you doing something interesting?"

Miu seemed to not have expected something like that, so it took a bit for her to answer:

"Well... Of course I'm doing something interesting!" She recovered her bravado "I am the gorgeous girl genius who will change the world! Everything I do is interesting!"

Tsumugi didn't mind it "So, what are you building?" She asked.

"Well..." Miu seemed a bit awkward, but eventually she began explaining.

And apparently that was the secret to having a normal conversation with her, because she didn't display any more signs of her... boisterous personality while they were talking about her inventions.

She did praise herself endlessly, but that was a lot easier to handle than her usual self. And the things she had to talk about were actually very interesting, specially when she talked about how she needed to do a lot of strange things to be able to prepare the small parts of the mechanisms, which were frequently too small for normal methods to work.

Tsumugi actually managed to forget about her worries, and she lost track of time. Eventually it got late, and the Cosplayer thanked Miu and went back to her room.

The first day was done.


	3. Secrets

Tsumugi woke up disoriented. She didn't recognize the place where she was, and it took a bit of time for her to remember about the events that had happened on the previous day.

"It seems... Like that wasn't a dream." She spoke to herself.

But deep down, Tsumugi had already known that to be the case. She never had such realistic dreams and wasn't ever able to recall so much of her dreams either.

Still, that had been a truly bizarre situation to get involved in, so it wasn't hard to see why she would doubt it. The Cosplayer took a deep breath and realized that she was feeling much better after a good night of sleep.

However, Tsumugi then saw something strange.

"Is this... Another Monopad?" She wondered.

She had seen something that looked like a smaller and more colorful version of the Monopad she had received as the student handbook. Curious, Tsumugi touched its screen, but she would soon wish to not have done so.

"With greetings from the Monokubs, it's time for the first Motive!" Monotaro's voice came out of the pad, and it showed the five Monokubs.

"What? Motive?" Tsumugi took a moment to understand what they were talking about.

"This time, the theme of the motives is... Secrets!" The voice continued, and the screen changed to show the silhouettes of people looking at each other with wariness "What is your deepest secret? Would you be willing to kill in order to preserve it?"

"Secret?" Tsumugi knew that she shouldn't keep watching, but she was simply unable to avert her eyes.

She was wondering about what kind of secret they would have about her, since she didn't think she had anything hidden that would be so serious. However, what came next surprised her.

The screen changed to a picture of Rantaro "Rantaro Amami. The mysterious Ultimate. His biggest secret is that... This is not his first time participating in a Killing Game!"

Tsumugi almost threw the pad away after hearing that. The screen darkened again but the motive had already been passed.

The girl took almost a minute to be able to think clearly again. And that was when she realized that she had been too naive.

Tsumugi had thought that she would receive her own secret, but that wouldn't really make for a very good motive, at least by itself.

Instead, she received someone else's secret, and that probably meant that the same had happened with every one of the Ultimates.

And that made things a lot more complicated. Everyone who had a big secret would know that someone else held that secret, and meanwhile, the people who got those secrets could very well decide to kill as well, maybe to protect themselves, or maybe to "punish" those who had dark histories.

That motive would create an even bigger atmosphere of distrust among the students. Making it easier for any one of them to kill.

Which was completely intended. That was a Killing Game, after all.

Tsumugi decided that she would do her best to avoid Rantaro. It would be best to not give him any reason to suspect that she had his secret.

With that said, she couldn't simply stay hiding in her room all the time. That would make her crazy. And besides, she hadn't eaten in the previous day, so she was hungry. She had seen a dining hall while she was wandering the school on the previous day, so maybe she would be able to get some food while there.

Tsumugi wasn't the only one who had that idea, as she found out when she got to her destination. It turned out that most of the Ultimates, nine people in total, were already there.

Thankfully, Rantaro was not one of those people, so Tsumugi didn't have to deal with that right away. And looking at the Ultimates distributed among the tables, the Cosplayer could tell that they had definitely received their own "Motives" as well.

The tension seemed to be even higher than the previous day, with the Ultimates sitting very separated from each other, except in two cases "Tenko and Himiko, Kaede and Shuuichi". Also they were all talking in whispers, as if afraid they would be overheard.

"Excuse me, Miss Tsumugi?" A voice snapped her out of her thoughts.

It was Kirumi Toujou, the Ultimate Maid.

"Do you have any requests about your breakfast?" She asked "Me and Keebo intend to work together to make food for everyone who wants it."

"Ahh... Perhaps two eggs, a sandwich and a cup of coffee with sugar?" Tsumugi said, after a momentary pause.

Kirumi nodded, and she went to the kitchen together with K1B0, the Ultimate Robot.

Considering that she could likely do that sort of work easily, Tsumugi suspected that letting Keebo join was actually a way to let the people who were eating feel more at ease.

She was deciding where to sit when she saw a person alone in a table waving at her. It was Miu.

Tsumugi went to her table and sat down next to the Inventor, who spoke:

"Looks like the sleeping beauty is finally up. Did you tire yourself too much yesterday masturbating?"

"I think that would make me sleep better, not worse." Tsumugi answered with a smile.

Despite the way it seemed, Miu was definitely slightly shaken, as Tsumugi could tell from her tone of voice. Which was fair, considering that she was not exactly one hundred percent calm and collected herself.

The two talked with each other, speaking of such banal subjects that Tsumugi pretty much forgot what was being said as soon as the food arrived. It was a way to avoid thinking about the Killing Game and the Motives.

After that, the two found common ground in praising Kirumi's food, relieved for not having to think of other subjects to talk about. They deliberately ate slowly, not just to appreciate the taste, but also to keep from needing to talk about something else for a while.

Still, eventually there was no more way they could keep delaying matters, so Tsumugi was about to speak when she noticed Miu's expression. It seemed like she was trying to gather courage to say something. And eventually she managed to:

"Come with me. There's something I have to show you."

Tsumugi was surprised by Miu's uncharacteristic seriousness, so she followed along quietly when the other girl left the dining area.

She followed the other girl as she walked along, and soon realized where exactly they were going. They were heading towards the gym, the same place in which the Killing Game was announced. Tsumugi wondered about what could Miu be planning to show her there.

She didn't have to wonder for long. When they got inside, Tsumugi was able to see what was wrong pretty much immediately.

The exact place she found it was in one of the few things of note in the gym, that same screen showing the Monokubs that Monokuma had summoned before.

Each of the Monokubs was represented on it, and besides their faces was the number of "Monopoints" they had. Four of them had four hundred points left, because they lost one hundred after the first day with no killings.

However, Monokid was different from the others. He actually had nine hundred points, which meant that he somehow got five hundred points in a day.

Miu only needed to look at Tsumugi's petrified expression to see that she was aware of the problem. The Inventor gave the other girl some time to get her thoughts in order, before asking:

"You understand, don't you?"

"I do." Tsumugi said "Monokuma said they would gain points by doing their jobs as teaching assistants. So that means Monokid should have helped someone in some sort of activity related to the Killing Game."

"That was what I figured." Miu said "But I have no idea of what that could be."

Tsumugi thought "It could have been suggesting some sort of plan to help the caller commit a crime, or even give them information about the movements of another person." She sighed "Monokuma said we could use the Monopads to request their help, maybe there's something there..."

"You don't need to bother." Miu said "I already checked the Monopad. The only function it has is the ability to call for any one of the Monokubs to come see you."

"That's what I feared." Tsumugi sighed again "If we don't actually call them, we can't know what are their specific services and those rules they mentioned. This only serves to make the paranoia stronger among us."

"Do you think we should do that, just to get more information?" Miu asked.

Tsumugi thought for just a moment "No. That would be playing right in the hands of whoever is behind this." She looked at Miu "We got so scared just from seeing that one of them had gotten some points, so if that happened with more of them, the rest of the group would probably get even more paranoid."

"But we wouldn't get them to do anything, just explain the rules." Miu argued.

"Don't you think that helping the players understand the rules of the Killing Game could be considered as helping someone with the Killing Game?" Tsumugi asked.

That shut Miu up. Tsumugi kept talking:

"In fact, it is possible that we are freaking out over nothing, and those points are from exactly that. Someone wanting to know the rules of the Monokubs."

"Do you really think so?" Miu asked.

"There's no way to know. But it's possible. It's just the kind of trick that could be used to increase our paranoia." Tsumugi said. Then she looked at Miu "Speaking of that, why are you showing me these things?"

"You're the only one I can trust." Miu said, then looked like she regretted it.

Tsumugi was confused for a second, but then she thought of something.

"You got my secret, didn't you?" She asked.

Miu cringed, but answered "Yes."

Tsumugi sighed "And since you said that you could trust me, does that mean my secret wasn't anything bad?"

"Yeah." Miu nodded "I don't even know why being bisexual qualifies as a 'biggest secret'."

Tsumugi facepalmed "So it was just that? And I wondered what they would put on my video..."

"Did you receive mine as well?" Miu asked.

"No." Tsumugi said "But perhaps it would have been better if I had..."

"What do you mean?" Miu asked.

Tsumugi mentally debated herself about what to say, eventually she settled on:

"The video I got was pretty serious. So much that I'd rather not say what it was, or who it was, because I already have to worry about that person figuring out that I know, and I don't want you to be in the same situation."

Miu looked slightly sick "Do you think there's anything we could do?"

Tsumugi shook her head "I can't think of anything. I'm just a Cosplayer, and asking me to deal with that is too much." She said "I just hope to be able to survive." She put a finger on her chin "But it seems like Kaede and Shuuichi are trying to do something. Perhaps we should rely on them."

That seemed to reassure Miu only slightly. But Tsumugi couldn't do anything. Even if she thought of some plan, she was too scared to try to fight.


	4. Shadows and Tears

Tsumugi passed the next three days with an almost aggressive drive to ignore the whole situation. She spent a long time in the library reading their assortment of fiction books. Maki was usually there as well. They never talked, but Tsumugi felt a little better not being alone.

She also did other things, such as playing a few games at the arcade and watching videos in the AV room. Slowly but surely, she started getting to know the other students a bit:

Maki seemed wary of people, in the few occasions Tsumugi had seen others near her. Gonta was kind and kept trying to get others interested in talks about bugs and nature in general. Ryoma seemed to be listless, content in simply letting himself be dragged around by the others.

Himiko and Tenko were frequently together, with the former lamenting the lack of chance for doing a magic show while the latter tended to try and talk with Tsumugi, perhaps sensing her state. Angie was withdrawn, always in her little world of doing art and praying, while Kaito was outgoing and kept dragging the others around to do things.

Keebo was friendly, but seemed pretty unsure of himself. Kirumi was always trying to make the others feel more comfortable, and was eerily perceptive of Tsumugi's state of mind. Korekiyo was always talking with someone about his studies, and his enthusiasm was contagious.

There were four she got to know better than the others: Kaede, Shuuichi, Miu and surprisingly Kokichi.

Kaede kept trying to keep everyone's spirits up, saying that no one would initiate a killing game, and did her best to befriend the other students. Shuuichi was shy and left the spotlight to Kaede, but he was sharp and seemingly had already figured out a few ideas about how to escape from this place.

Miu was driven, always working on something to the point where Tsumugi felt a little embarrassed about bothering her, and Miu's prickly personality was a very transparent cover for a timid, submissive personality.

Kokichi was an enigma. He frequently called Tsumugi, as well as many of the others, to spend time inside his lab. And he also spent a lot of time exploring the grounds of the school, but if he found anything interesting while doing so, he never told anyone. Tsumugi always felt a little wary of him, but some of the other students, such as Kaito and Angie, appeared to consider him a friend.

She didn't really interact with Rantaro, and in fact, only caught glimpses of him during those days. The boy never tried to approach her, and actually seemed to be keeping his distance from everyone, but that suited Tsumugi just fine.

As the days passed, however, Tsumugi started to get more and more tense. Simply trying to ignore the situation was no longer working, and that ended up driving her to ask a certain question to Kaede one day.

They were both inside the Ultimate Pianist's Lab, and Kaede was playing something for her that day. Shuuichi wasn't there, since he was apparently busy with something. Tsumugi looked at Kaede as she finished the last few notes of her current piece, and couldn't help but speak:

"How are things going?"

Kaede looked at her in surprise. While this question seemed simple, it definitely had a deep hidden meaning, considering the situation in which the Ultimates were and the things the two of them had talked about before.

As such, she stopped and thought for a moment before answering:

"It's uncertain." Kaede said "It doesn't feel like anyone is really getting desperate enough to kill just yet, but a lot of people seem to be doing things sneakily, without thinking of everyone else. Kokichi and Rantaro are the worst about that, I rarely see the latter, in fact."

Tsumugi forced herself not to react to the mention of Rantaro, and was mostly successful. Perhaps she had spent a moment too long before speaking, but Kaede didn't seem to notice anything strange.

"I see... Well, I hope everything will be okay." Was Tsumugi's answer.

Perhaps she had been influenced by that conversation, but after leaving the company of the pianist, Tsumugi decided to do something she hadn't done in a while: She went to the gym to look at the "scorecard" of the Monokubs.

Four of them, including Monokid, who had been in the lead after obtaining five hundred extra points in the first day, were now tied with six hundred points, meaning that three other Monokubs had also gotten five hundred extra points (they would have lost three hundred points in these three days without killings). Monophanie, on the other hand, had eleven hundred points, which meant she had gotten one thousand extra points somehow.

Tsumugi immediately regretted having gone there. She returned to her room almost as if she was trying to escape from something, and remained there for the rest of the day. Once again, sleep didn't come easily to her.

+0+

The next day, Tsumugi had mostly recovered from her panic attack. She returned to doing what she had been doing on the previous day, mostly hanging out at the library, though she did visit Miu, who also seemed quite tired and tense.

However, that day was destined to be different from any of the previous ones. She had been alone in the library, reading, when the monitor that was there lit up suddenly with the image of Monokuma.

"A body has been discovered. Please everyone, gather at the games room." He spoke, and then the screen turned off again.

Those words caused Tsumugi an unbelievable level of shock. Almost without thinking, she walked towards the games room, and once she arrived there, she saw a scene that would be impossible to forget for her entire life.

She had been the last one to arrive. Thirteen students were already standing inside the games room with looks of shock on their faces. They were looking at Kaede, who was crying as she cradled the lifeless body of Shuuichi Saihara.

+0+

A.N: And this is it, the first victim.

People might be wondering why we are following Tsumugi, given that she isn't really involved with the events too much. But that is precisely the point. The idea for this first chapter was to show a different perspective to a class trial: The perspective of one of the ordinary students, who aren't part of the investigation and only know the details revealed in trial.

And that is exactly what is going on now. Tsumugi, and by extension the readers, will only have knowledge of things revealed in the trial in order to reach their conclusions about the culprit. I wonder how you guys will handle it...


	5. Trial Starts

Tsumugi could barely believe in the scene she was seeing. She had known that people might die, and she even understood that she might end up dying, but somehow, actually seeing it happen gave her a sense of unreality.

And that sense only became stronger when Monokuma appeared out of nowhere:

"Hello, everyone! Why do you look so gloomy? The game is finally starting!" He said "I'm here just to inform you that your Monopads have been updated with Shuuichi's autopsy report. You won't need to worry about not having the skill needed to discover all the pertinent facts and evidence from the body. So, good luck and happy investigation!"

And then he disappeared just as suddenly as he had appeared, leaving the rest of the group in an awkward silence. The silence was interrupted after a few seconds by Rantaro:

"I guess we need to decide a few things..."

Everyone reacted visibly to his words, except for Kaede. Eventually Kokichi asked him:

"What do you suppose we need to decide?"

"There will be a class trial soon, so we need to investigate to find out who is responsible for the murder."

This time, even Kaede reacted. Gonta was the one who responded:

"What are you saying?! There's no way-"

"There's no way any of us here is a murderer. Is that what you want to say?" Rantaro interrupted him "Regardless, Monokuma will force us to take part in the class trial, now that Shuuichi is dead

We need to investigate to figure out what happened, otherwise he would be able to say anything he wanted and lay the blame on anyone he wanted."

Everyone cringed at his words, but then Kaede spoke:

"You're right." She slowly laid Shuuichi's body on the ground and stood up herself "We need to figure out what happened to Shuuichi, or else regardless of what happens in the trial, we won't be able to trust each other again."

She then turned back to Shuuichi "But still, I don't want to just leave Shuuichi alone here."

"Not to mention that someone could try to mess with his body to hinder the investigation." Kokichi said with a smiling face, though his tone was grave.

At this, Tsumugi got an idea "What if we leave two people behind to keep watch over the body? I could be one of them."

"Why not just one?" Angie asked.

"It's so they can keep an eye on each other." Rantaro was the one to respond "I think that would work."

"So, Gonta, why don't you join Tsumugi then?" Kokichi proposed "It doesn't seem like you'd be useful at all in an investigation."

"Then Gonta will do that!" The tall boy declared, seemingly not offended at all by Kokichi's words.

Both Tsumugi and Gonta stepped up and took position on the sides of the body. Kaede took a look at them and seemed to approve. She looked at Shuuichi's corpse one last time before leaving, apparently deciding to investigate elsewhere.

Tsumugi took out her Monopad and turned it on, since she might as well take a look at the so called "Monokuma File". She touched the icon and text appeared on the screen.

"The victim is Shuuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective. His body was discovered at the games room. His estimated time of death is 9:10 AM. The victim was subjected to multiple blunt force impacts on the head and upper body, resulting in multiple cranial and bone fractures, as well as many lacerations. A few of those appear to be defensive wounds."

It also had pictures of Shuuichi and the crime scene, and a small schema showing the injuries. It was all very cold and methodical, and that, more than anything else, was what made Tsumugi finally fully accept the reality of the situation.

Sighing, she turned to look at Shuuichi's body more closely, while taking into consideration what she had read about his injuries. And honestly, he didn't look all that bad. There were some evident bruises, but most of the damage appeared to be internal.

Looking away again, Tsumugi settled herself to wait for the trial.

+0+

The wait felt longer than it actually was. Tsumugi didn't have anything to do except look around, and the only notable things that happened on the games room were a few of the students (Kokichi, Rantaro, Korekiyo and Kirumi) who came to investigate and take a closer look at the body. They took quite a few pictures (because the Monopads apparently had that function) but didn't seem interested in talking about what theories they had, if any. Though Kirumi did ask for Tsumugi to take off her shoes and show her feet, for some reason.

It felt almost torturous to just stand there and wait, so she started talking with Gonta:

"Do you think the others will be able to figure out what happened?" She asked.

"Gonta doesn't know." The boy answered "Gonta can't believe one of us could have actually killed Shuuichi..."

"It's the same for me." Tsumugi said, mostly truthfully "I know there was the motive thing. But I can't think of what kind of secret Shuuichi might have that would bring someone to kill him."

"Motive..." Gonta muttered, before falling silent again.

That seemed to have made him think. But what secret had Gonta received? And speaking of that, Tsumugi had tried not to think about that, but according to her own motive video, Rantaro had won a previous game. Could it be that the killing had nothing to do with the motive, and he was simply trying to win?

Tsumugi rejected that possibility almost instinctually. She didn't have any rational reason for it, but it just seemed... it seemed like the story wouldn't fit.

Wouldn't fit? That was an odd thought, and Tsumugi tried to get to the bottom of it.

Perhaps it was because Rantaro had won a previous game, so someone like him would have enough experience not to risk themselves by trying something before carefully observing the situation.

But was that really reliable? Wouldn't experience had given him enough confidence to act early before the others could get used to the killing game, specially considering the victim was the detective, the person most likely to be able to solve the mystery?

Tsumugi shook her head. It did her no good to think about those things. She wasn't investigating the case anyway. She would just have to put her faith on the others.

+0+

Eventually, Monokuma announced the end of the investigation period, and called all of them to a specific place in the school: The fountain.

It was marked by a very unpleasant muscular Monokuma statue, which moved, opening up the fountain to reveal an elevator. It was more than big enough for all fifteen of the students, and the mood was somber as it started moving downwards with them inside.

When it opened, they saw the courtroom. A gray space with multicolored stained glass windows, as well as sixteen seats arranged in a circle, with one of them already occupied by a mourning picture of Shuuichi. It had been crossed out with a red X which appeared to be two magnifier glasses crossed together.

Apart from that, the room also had a high judge chair, with five smaller stands around it, where Monokuma and the Monokubs were standing, respectively.

The Ultimates walked towards the seats, seeing that each one of them was labeled, so they took their designated spots silently.

Upon seeing this, Monokuma piped up with an explanation of the class trial. It wasn't anything they hadn't heard before, when the nature of the Killing Game was explained. The bear proceeded to officially start the trial, giving them a chance to begin their discussion.

The first person to speak was Rantaro Amami.

"Since we're going to try and solve a murder. I suggest that we take a look at each part of the case separately and share our thoughts about them before trying to bring up any theories. That should be the most efficient way of doing this, right?" It was evident that he had thought about that before the trial even started. He was calm and composed.

"I have no objections to that idea." Kaede said. Her gaze at Rantaro was cold and wary.

"Haha, if you two agree about that, then who I am to disagree?" Kokichi said, his manners lively.

Some other people spoke, but none of them spoke against the idea either.

"In that case, how about we begin by discussing the matter of the murder weapon?" Rantaro said, waving his hand "The Monokuma File points out his cause of death as being from multiple blunt force impacts, but makes no mention of a specific weapon, and there didn't seem to be any of those at the scene."

"Are you certain there was a weapon at all?" Keebo interjected "Isn't it possible for a person to cause blunt force damage with their bare hands?"

"Theoretically, that would be true." Kirumi explained "However, I don't believe that would be the case in this particular instance." Her voice was steady "Doing the kind of damage Shuuichi received with just your hands or feet isn't as simple as it seems, even if you are strong like Gonta, or have techniques like Tenko."

"Hey, Gonta is gentleman, and gentlemen do not kill!" Gonta declared, outraged.

"I would never kill anyone, not even a degenerate male!" Tenko did the same "I'll forgive you for saying that, but please don't imply such a thing again..." She looked at Kirumi, almost pouting.

The maid ignored the objections of the two and kept speaking "Causing such damage to a person will also result in damage to your own body, which is why it's easy to recognize professional fighters from the marks on their hands." Kirumi was very sure "It's been so little time since the death, even the temporary marks of hitting something should still be there, but I didn't find anything similar on anyone, even after checking their hands and feet."

'So that's the explanation for that...' Tsumugi thought.

"I feel betrayed!" Kokichi exclaimed suddenly "I only showed you my feet because you threatened to stop making my favorite meals... Who would have thought that you would have had such an objective?" He teared up "And to think that I believed in you..."

"I am sorry, Master Kokichi, but my duty is with all of the students here, and as such I shall do my utmost to help this trial reach the right conclusion." Kirumi spoke with full composure.

"Meh, I guess it's okay." Kokichi calmed down immediately.

"But what if someone had bashed Shuuichi against a wall? They wouldn't harm their hands like that, would they?" Keebo brought up another point.

"I have also checked the walls and heavy objects that could have been used for such a purpose, and none of them shows traces of any sort of impact." Kirumi countered simply.

With that, Keebo seemed to have run out of objections. There were a few moments of silence before Rantaro took the lead again.

"Now that we have settled that question, let's go back to the previous matter. How about we discuss the possible murder weapon?" He proposed.

This time, someone new entered the discussion. It was Korekiyo:

"I believe I have something to contribute towards this particular discussion." He spoke simply "It is the matter of the missing items from the games room."

Tsumugi was surprised. Had something really gone missing from there? And more than one?

"I agree that those items are the most likely candidates." Kaede spoke this time "Specially because I couldn't find any of them anywhere. What specifically do you want to talk about?"

"Simply that I have made a complete list of the missing objects. I have it here on my Monopad, if anyone wants to take a look." Korekiyo said.

"Complete? Are you sure of that?" Kaede asked.

"Yes. My memory is quite detailed, which is one of the things that helped with my talent. So, does anyone want to see it?" He asked.

"That will not be necessary." Monokuma piped up "The Class Trial is designed with convenience in mind. I'm sure you already noticed all the useful features your Monopads have for Investigations."

Tsumugi hadn't, actually, since she had avoided even looking at the thing.

"The Monopads have other useful functions that can only be used during trials." Monokuma continued "And one of them is Share, in which you can share any of the information you gathered via your Monopad with the others."

Korekiyo's Monopad beeped, and he looked down at it for a few moments before pressing the screen a few times, causing the Monopads of all the others to beep as well. Tsumugi took her Monopad and looked at it, seeing the list Korekiyo had made.

It was startlingly detailed, containing twenty-six objects in total. There were four pool cues, six remote control toy cars, four bowling balls and the rest were a variety of other random knick-knacks. Was there really so much stuff inside the games room? Tsumugi had totally missed it.

"I knew some things were missing. But I hadn't realized there were so many." Kaede commented.

"Why would the killer get rid of so many things?" Tenko asked.

"To hide which one of them was the real murder weapon." Himiko suggested.

"Maybe the culprit used all of them..." Angie muttered.

"But I think there's something else we should discuss." Kokichi spoke up "How did the culprit dispose of everything? Did anyone find out where the objects went?"

There was silence as the students looked at each other, but no one spoke up.

"So they completely disappeared. That's quite strange. How could the culprit have disposed of so many things so completely without anyone noticing?" Kokichi put forth the question.

"There's a way." Tsumugi spoke without thinking, surprising even herself.

"Oh? Could you explain that to us, miss Cosplayer?" Kokichi challenged her.

She decided that she might as well keep going.

"The Monokubs mentioned that one of the ways they could help would be by cleaning up evidence." She said "Couldn't the culprit have simply asked them?"

Hearing that, said bears let out a very suspicious sounding "EHHHH?!"

Tsumugi didn't expect to be able to help in the trial, and that was probably a conclusion they could have reached even without her, but she still felt happy to have done something.

But how would the rest of the trial go?


	6. Storyweaving

"Ah, that's interesting." Rantaro said with a smile "So the reason why the murder weapon is missing is because the Monokubs disposed of it."

"But that actually makes me a bit curious." Kokichi took up the word "There is no option to call for all the Monokubs at the same time, and it seems unlikely that the culprit would call for each of them individually. So why is it that it seems like all of them have something to do with it?"

Why indeed... Tsumugi considered the situation: Someone had killed Shuuichi. The Monokubs had removed the murder weapon along with a lot of potential evidence. Those were facts, pieces of the story that could not be denied.

Almost without meaning to, Tsumugi had started thinking of the crime as a story. She was about to admonish herself for it, when it occurred to her that perhaps that could help, and in that case, she should do it, even if it was a bit callous.

In that case, the Monokubs would be characters in the story. What are their motivations then? That's simple, they didn't want to die either, so they needed to obtain points through interfering with the game. That was their motivation.

The culprit could have called them to help, but that seems difficult to believe, according to what Kokichi had said. So Tsumugi decided to look at things from another angle: What if they had decided to help out of their own initiative?

That was a very plausible idea. But how to make sure of it? Perhaps she should try and bluff them. Tsumugi came out of her focus, and realized that no one seemed to have given an answer to the question Kokichi had posed.

Before speaking, Tsumugi took a deep breath and focused on the situation, she had to act like she was absolutely sure of what she was saying.

"Come on, guys. Isn't the answer to that question obvious?" She spoke in a confident tone "I mean, it's written right in their faces." She pointed to the Monokubs.

"EHHHH?!" They reacted in the same suspicious way as before.

The one who replied first to her words was Rantaro.

"So why don't you tell us what exactly is this 'obvious' answer?" He looked directly at her.

Tsumugi forced herself to look back at him without backing down. She couldn't turn away now.

"They did it on their own, of course." She spoke with a small smile "They have their own game going on, but no one here wanted to cooperate with them, so they decided to gain points on their own initiative."

"Eh, no, there's no way something like that happened, right Monodam?" Monotaro spoke trembling.

"NOTHING-LIKE-THAT-HAPPENED." The robot replied.

"Yeah, we're innocent! We didn't even take away all that pile of stuff!" Monophanie declared.

"Oh, my my... Looks like my children have been naughty..." Monokuma spoke lightly.

"Huh?! What do you mean, dad?! There's no way we would try to trick you!" Monokid spoke.

"Yeah. Even Monotaro isn't stupid enough for that!" Monosuke backed him up.

"Hey! What do you mean by that!" Said Monokub lost his temper.

"Fufufu... You don't need to deny it. Don't you know? I am the master of this place. I knew what you were doing right away!" Monokuma laughed.

"EHHHH?!" The Monokubs shouted.

"If that's the case, why didn't you prevent them from messing around?" Kokichi asked "Ah, no. You don't need to answer that, I already know. It is to make the game more interesting, right?"

"Fufufu... You got it! I wanted to know how you would deal with that interference!" Monokuma replied "Ah, you five don't have to be so nervous." He spoke to the Monokubs "I'm not going to punish you. I'm not even going to remove the Monopoints you gained from that. That wasn't a specific rule, after all. Ah, I really spoil my children too much."

"Father!" Monotaro said.

"Ah, but I'll still execute you if you run out. So please do your best, it would be terrible if I were forced to execute my adorable Kubs!" Monokuma continued.

"Father!" Monotaro repeated the same word, but with a completely different emphasis.

Monokuma ignored him "Ah, but it wouldn't be interesting if that kept happening, so now I'm going to add an extra rule: 'The Monokubs are not allowed to manipulate evidence unless specifically requested by one of the Ultimates'."

A sound was heard around the trial room, as everyone's Monopads beeped in notification that the rules had been updated. A few people took them out to make sure everything was as simple and straightforward as it appeared to be.

"It seems like this mystery has been solved." Rantaro spoke up again "We now understand how so much evidence could have vanished, but it seems like this line of questioning is a dead end."

"Seems to be." Kokichi was the one to reply "And I imagine you have some idea of what to do next, don't you?" He challenged.

Rantaro didn't rise to the bait "It's not anything out of the ordinary. I just think we should get everyone's testimonies about what they were doing at the time of the crime. It would help whittle down the suspect list."

A few people expressed their approval of the idea. Tsumugi sighed internally, since she didn't have much of an alibi.

Kokichi ended up being the first one to speak "Usually I sleep until late, but today I woke up early to prepare for a big prank." He shook his head "The details are a secret, but Kaito and Himiko were helping me set things up, and we were doing it the whole morning."

"That's right!" Kaito declared "All three of us are innocent!"

"I believe that Keebo and Me can also be removed from consideration." Korekiyo said "Both of us spent the whole morning testing out the games in the board games room."

"Indeed." Keebo confirmed.

However, someone else found it strange "The board games room? But that is right beside the crime scene!" Tenko stated "This is very suspicious, you degenerate male! How could you two have not heard anything?" She accused.

"There is a simple explanation for that, mistress Tenko." Kirumi said "The board games room, when closed, is actually sealed off from all sound coming from outside." She smiled "I believe this is to prevent the noise of the games room from interfering with the experience."

"Ahh... Uhhh..." Tenko looked embarrassed "Well, if Kirumi says that, then I will believe it, but don't think you're off the hook yet!" She pointed at Korekiyo, who didn't seem to care that much about her opinion.

"Angie spent the morning working on a clay sculpture," The artist spoke up "I stayed there at the garden until I heard the announcement, and Atua is my witness." She then put a finger on her chin "Ah, and I guess Tenko was there too."

"That's right!" Tenko declared "Angie is a truly amazing artist, so I didn't even feel the time pass!"

"I was in my lab the whole time!" Miu said forcefully "There was no one inside there, but I have evidence! My Monopad keeps a record of when I used it to enter or exit the lab. Today it's registered that I got inside at 08:12 AM and left at 09:32 AM, just after the announcement, so don't even think about pining that on me, assholes!"

Miu proved that point by sending the data to everyone else's Monopads, and they saw that it was exactly as she had said.

"By the way..." Monokuma piped up "Before you guys get any ideas, I'll come right out and confirm that this data is completely accurate."

Miu looked at him weirdly, clearly not having expected Monokuma to back her up, but then recovered her bravado.

"That's right! I'm completely in the clear, bitches!" She declared, laughing triumphantly.

"Let's just ignore the whore." Kokichi said casually, with a dismissive gesture "What about everyone else? By my count, there are still seven people who don't have any alibis."

Tsumugi expected Miu to object to that, but instead the girl seemed... aroused? Huh.

Kaede was the next person to talk "I was in the library the whole morning." She said "Most of the time I was alone, but around 09:00 AM Kirumi came to offer me breakfast, so she was still there during the time of death."

"A small correction." Kirumi spoke "It wasn't around nine o'clock, but exactly that time. I prefer to be punctual. Apart from that, everything Kaede said is accurate. So I suppose both of us share an alibi."

"Gonta was outside looking for bugs the whole morning." Gonta said "But I couldn't find any..."

There was a moment of awkward silence as people tried to think of a way to respond to that. In the end, Ryoma was the one to speak.

"I don't think Gonta is lying." He said "I saw him leave during the morning, when I was doing my daily walk. I also saw him come back to the school after the announcement, since I was also doing the same thing." He sighed "I can't say for sure that he didn't go back to the school at some point, but I think that's something..."

"Actually..." Kokichi cut in "There's something else I was concerned about." He looked to the entomologist "Gonta, didn't you check for bugs on the first three days?" He asked "You didn't find any that time, so why would you go look for bugs again?"

"Ehh..." Gonta started "Gonta thought he saw bug yesterday. But bug really small and fast, so Gonta not sure. So Gonta tried looking for it in the morning. But Gonta not find it... So maybe Gonta imagine it after all..."

"Well, I think this explanation makes sense. Only because it's Gonta though." He then turned to Ryoma "So, if I get this right, you don't have a solid alibi either, correct?"

"Guess so." Ryoma said, apparently not caring that much.

Tsumugi I decided that she might as well speak out too:

"I'm in the same boat. I stayed in my room the whole morning." She said.

"Well, that's nice and straightforward." Rantaro said "I was exploring the school this morning, but I spent most of the time on the higher floors, so it's not much of an alibi. How about you, Maki? Should I assume that you are in the same situation?" He asked the girl, who was the only one not to have talked up to that point.

"I didn't leave my room." She said with her usual tone "That is all."

"Very much to the point, aren't you, Maki?" Rantaro said in a casual voice "So there we have it, everyone's testimonies about what they were doing this morning. I believe this should give us a good starting point." He joined his hands "However, it is time for us to move along with the rest of this trial. I believe that the next topic of conversation should be to focus on our victim, since we don't seem to have any other solid leads to follow." He smiled humorlessly "Specifically I'm talking about the reason he died."

"Isn't it obvious?" Kaito asked "The culprit wanted to escape here, and they got Shuuichi's secret, whatever it was, and used it as justification to kill him! So we just need to find them!"

"And how do you supposed we should do that, you idiot?" Maki glared at him "There's no way the person who got Shuuichi's secret would confess, since that would make them suspicious."

"Ah... Well... I guess..." Kaito stumbled over his words.

"I have my own theory about the motive for this crime." Kaede spoke, making the room fall silent.

Well, mostly "Wow, things are getting interesting!" Monokuma commented.

Kaede ignored him "My theory is that Shuuichi was killed by the mastermind of this game."

Everyone tried to talk at once, causing mayhem to break out for a few seconds, before everyone realizing that Kaede wouldn't be able to explain anything if they didn't give her a chance to speak, so they went silent.

"Shuuichi had this theory that among the Ultimates, there was someone controlling Monokuma and this game secretly." Kaede started speaking.

"How rude! There's no way I'm being controlled by someone! I am a free bear!" Monokuma spoke angrily.

Kaede ignored him "A few of you may have realized this, but there are some secret passages inside this place, passages that cannot be opened normally. There is one in the girl's bathroom on the first floor, one in a trapdoor on the rear grounds, one in the library... and one in the games room."

She sighed as the others processed that.

"Shuuichi and me had a plan to catch the mastermind." Kaede said "We were keeping watch of those places and taking notes on any movements we saw nearby. Eventually, we discovered that sometimes, the electronic locks of those passages would change color from green to red, and Shuuichi had an hypothesis: What if that was because the mastermind was inside? It definitely wasn't the opposite, as there were times with everyone accounted for and the locks were green at the time."

"So that was why you were at the library during this morning." Rantaro concluded "The light was red, right?"

"Yes." Kaede confirmed "So we put a plan into action. I would keep watch over the library to prevent the mastermind from leaving that way. I also set off one of Kokichi's paint bombs at the girl's bathroom, so they couldn't go through without leaving evidence."

"Ah, that's a really fun way to use them. Well done!" Kokichi grinned.

"Shuuichi's part of the plan was to first cover the trapdoor with soot in case the mastermind tried to leave from there... and to watch over the games room." Kaede continued "If either of us saw someone leaving through either of those places, we were supposed to snap a picture and run away. And yet..." Kaede choked a sob "And yet Shuuichi still died. Why? Why did he have to die?" She shook her head and took a deep breath "I saw it. While Kirumi was still with me, the light changed to green. That was the time Shuuichi died."

There was another long silence after all those revelations, but it was suddenly broken by a laugh.

"UPUPUPUPUPU! That's hilarious!" It was Monokuma speaking "It's almost too funny to be true... Such a desperate accusation, all because of a small misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding?" Kaede asked, challenging.

"Yes!" Monokuma giggled "Because, you see... The time where that red color changed to green is actually 9:12 AM. By that time, Shuuichi was already dead!" He started laughing again.

"No... You're ly-" Kaede started saying, but Kirumi, who was beside her, touched her shoulder to grab her attention.

The maid shook her head "He's right. I noticed when the light changed, and it was at that time." She spoke softly.

Kaede gritted her teeth and seemed to be about to explode for a moment, before managing to control herself by taking a deep breath.

Rantaro was the next to speak, and he talked to Monokuma "I noticed you didn't say anything about there not being a mastermind."

"Didn't I?" He replied cheekily "Honestly, it's not really a big deal. You guys knowing that there is someone among you who has some special privileges will only make the game more interesting. However, first you'll need to actually survive this class trial."

That made everyone focus back again. They still had no idea who had actually killed Shuuichi, and very few clues. Tsumugi was also thinking about what could be the answer. However, her thoughts kept drifting back to Kaede's revelations. Something about the way things had ended seemed wrong, like it didn't fit.

So Tsumugi tried to pinpoint the source of that feeling, and eventually it came down to a simple question: Why had no one else noticed the secret passages?

However, that question didn't seem to lead anywhere, so Tsumugi turned it around. What if someone else had noticed?

Since it seemed to help before, Tsumugi tried to think about it from the perspective of a story. What would that change? A lot could happen based on the factors at play. Shuuichi and Kaede's plan had obviously failed, but what if it failed because of interference from another party that had made their own plans based on the evidence of the lights?

That was simply a theory, and though it would fit seamlessly into the story, there was no way for Tsumugi to prove it true or false... Right?

Regardless, Tsumugi continued on that train of thought, and she wondered who would be the most likely people to do something.

The image of Kokichi leapt onto her mind, and Tsumugi remembered something he had said earlier in the trial.

"Kokichi." She spoke impulsively "You said you were preparing a prank this morning."

"Yes." Kokichi answered "Why are you bringing that up now?"

"I think that may be relevant to the case, so won't you please give us more details?" She asked him.

Tsumugi's heart was beating madly. She was incredibly scared. She felt very exposed. However, she wouldn't back down anymore. She didn't want to feel helpless anymore.

Even if she achieved nothing in the end, Tsumugi was going to fight with everything she had.


End file.
